Fight the Power?

Yesterday was school shopping day at my house! While my children got things they absolutely needed for school, I got some things I absolutely needed too; the newest crochet magazines!

One of the many things I like about living here in Monroe County is the availability of crochet magazines. In Berks county I could only find the mags at Wal-mart and the local Barnes and Nobles bookstore. I complained at the Michael's that they had ever knit magazine in creation, couldn't they make room for at least one crochet magazine?

NO!

Here in Monroe County, they speak my language. I have found copies of different magazines all over the place. They are at every grocery store I frequent and at the A.C. Moore in town ( so there, Michael's!) I have even found one at my local library. Piecework is dedicated to all of the fiber arts, and they seem to give equal time to crochet.

I was pleased with my purchases (Love of Crochet and Interweave Crochet) until I happened to look down at my receipt. Crochet again, was being given a kick in the face! See for yourself!

Although I had purchased crochet magazines, the department stores reckoned them with knit magazines! I was so mad that I did what I hadn't done in a long time... I went to the magazine racks at Wal-mart and I...I...moved the knit magazines to the back and pulled the crochet magazines to the front. I was only brave enough to take one picture of my "misdeed".

When I lived in Berks county I would do this all of the time. I would move the Interweave Knit magazines to the back and put the Interweave Crochet magazines to the front. I would take the copies of Crochet Today;( their covers are so pretty!), and place it prominently in front of all of the other craft magazines. I would fold my arms and feel pleased with my little act of civil disobedience!

Now that I am living in a county that is so in LOVE with crochet, I hadn't felt the need to be so bad! That was, until yesterday.

So crochet magazines take heart! I am on the job!

By the way, I hear that a brand new crochet magazine, Crochet 1-2-3 will be available (at Wal-mart!) on September 8th.

I will be watching and waiting...

"We interrupt this blog to enter a contest...How Crochet (Is Saving) My Life"

Once I realized the benefits of crocheting I began to do it with serious vigor.

Dementia had overtaken my grandmother. Unable to care for herself, my mother moved her in with us in my late teens. “She was too good of a mother to send to a nursing home” mom would declare time and again. She directed these comments at me, not-so-subtlety suggesting what I was to do with her should the time come.

The time came much too quickly. My mother started forgetting and having trouble telling stories she had told hundreds of times. Two people in one week asked me, “Is your mother okay?” I had no choice but to confront her about her obvious problem. She was angered at my questions; they were probably hitting close to home. She said that nothing was wrong her, and I let it go, already knowing the truth. Still, I read an informative book on defeating Alzheimer’s and prepared a lovely gift basket with all of the things that the author said should be used to banish Alzheimer’s to the ends of the earth where it belongs. Amongst the crossword puzzles, fish oils and multivitamins was a crochet hook and yarn. Crochet is supposed to reduce the risk of memory impairment. As long as the mind is actively engaged in a task, such as reading, learning a new language, or crocheting, the brain has a fighting chance. She refused the gift, the reality of her situation being too much.

I am not only fighting for myself, I am fighting for my daughters. I want them to learn crochet to fight off mental decline too. We make fun of the old grandmas rocking in their chairs, hook and yarn in hand but Granny had a point. We should not wait until old age. At 60, my mom knew something was wrong but her decline had begun in earnest. Today, three years later she tries to wash the dishes with olive oil, wandered and was lost for hours, and does not even remember that I am her daughter. With the strong genetic history going against us, my daughters and I do not have time to waste. I want to give myself that chance. Alzheimer’s has claimed two women in family. I do not want it to claim a third.

So I read voraciously. I do crosswords and Sudoku, although I am still on the easy puzzles. I try to get my eight hours of rest. I eat blueberries ad nauseum. I swim and/or bike almost every day. I take a daily multivitamin alongside a dose of omega-3 oil, and I crochet. I do it for once and future self. I do it for my grandmother and my daughters. Most ironically I do it for my mom, who in teaching me to crochet was actually teaching me how to save myself.

Switching Teams ;)

Yesterday I went on a recognizance mission with my daughter. We were scoping out the newest and BIGGEST bookstore in Monroe County, Pa. Bargain Book Warehouse opened recently filling a huge void because there are no bookstores in this area. As a crochet fan I hoped to find a huge cache of crochet books.

Perusing the miles of aisles (the spot used to be a grocery store!) I was overwhelmed with the amount of books I saw. I found quilting books and crafing books. I saw books on scrap booking and books on sewing. I found beading books and too many knitting books to count. I found only four lonely crochet books (Huggable Crochet, 150 Crochet Trims, Happy Crochet and Loop-d-Loop Crochet) amongst all of the hundreds of fun knit books. That totally unraveled my yarn!

The uneven ratio made me for a moment want switch teams. I wanted to go from hard core crocheter to happy-go-lucky knitter. Knitters have so many fun and quirky titles. (Knitting for Peace, Pretty Knits and Naughty Needles!) I wanted fun and quirky too. I wasn't too disheartened though. When I look into the crochet world I see that that idea of toggling between knit and crochet is not new.

Nicky Epstein, whom I only knew from her beautiful book Crocheted Flowers is actually a prolific knitter and more known for that than for her crochet.

Mary Beth Temple, who inspired me to write my own book of crochet stories has focused on many other crafts than crochet . Her latest book is Curvy Girl Crochet, but The Secret Language of Knitter is considered, “…the project of her heart.”

The ubiquitous Debbie “Stitch and Bitch” Stoller has famously taken up both hook and needle in very successful books on the fiber arts. I have to admit that there is appeal and beauty in both.

Because it is more popular, crocheters are often urged to “to come to the dark side" and knit! Teva Durham in Loop-d-Loop Crochet was the only one I saw that invited "knitters taking up the hook" to try one of her twenty five crochet designs.

So there is hope! I intend on remaining a crochet purist, and I can do so by helping fill the market with fun and quirky crochet pattern books, just like they have in the knit world. So, get ready for Naughty Hooks, the crocheted version of Nikol Lohr's Naughty Needles!

I Heart Math?

I am in the throes of recreating my very first crochet pattern and I have discovered that I love math. I have not always loved math. In fact, I have what people would call a math phobia. I hate to blame my junior high school math teachers (all male) but this is where I feel it started. Regardless, I can not let this fear of facts, fractions and factors stop me from my new career. I have to design pattern to go with my great stories about crochet so I have to get over it!

I say "recreating" because I want to make a pattern that I have been looking for for decades. Back in the 80's I made numerous dolls from a pattern I found in a book; I can not recall the title, which makes it impossible to find. My doll looked like a ballerina, perched atop her toes in a lovely little tulle skirt.

She resembled a rudimentary paper doll and was as simple in her design. I have scoured the internet, message boards, and websites to find her, but always come up short. I decided that if I could recreate this pattern from memory I should have no problem writing down any other pattern design I have in my head. As of this morning, I am pleased to report that my little ballerina is three-quarters done! I dutifully wrote down every stitch and I saw the math dance in front of my eyes. I find this especially true working with even numbers.

I am recreating a human form and I want her to be symmetrical. I scaled her to 32-26-30, my previous (hourglass) proportions! The top (32) is larger than the waist (26), and the waist is smaller than the hip (30). To replicate similar proportions in my doll, I did a row of 6 single crochets for the bust, a row of 4 single crochets for the waist, and a row of ___ for the hips. Mathematically, can you fill in the blank? If you could figure that out then you understand (and probably HEART) math like I do now.

Danica McKellar a.k.a "Winnie Cooper", you were right!

One Crochet Book...MINE!

In my attempt to get my stories about crochet published, I have received several pieces of feedback. One publisher told me that I should wait a year and work on developing my personal brand and writing style; I started the blog to develop my personal brand, and my writing style will continue to improve as I work my blog.
She agreed that I have interesting stories to tell and told me to come back in a year. A YEAR!

She said that I should try to be more like Kristin Ohmdahl, Vashti Braha and/or Twinkie Chan who focus upon blogs and vlogs. I appreciate her suggestion, but also see the value in the work that I want to present. Why can't I just do what I want to do and not mimic what those talented ladies have done?

I think there is value in stories about crochet.

The best advice that this publisher gave was to submit some works to magazines; she suggested submitting some to a new knit magazine, which seems so contrary to my purpose that I just shook my head. I considered it for a minute, but thought that would be contrary to what my personal brand will stand for, so I respectfully decline, thank you. Parenthetically, I'd like to mention that I submitted a story to a crochet magazines, and hope to see it in print soon.

Another publisher said that the industry is now more interested in pattern books and I agree. In an effort to make my book a little more marketable, I have agreed to add some patterns to accompany the stories. For instance, to my story about my yarn stash, I am creating a harmless little kitty amigurumi pattern who won't get into your yarn!

This may take a while because I've only created ONE pattern in my entire life! It will be an adventure!
Instead of changing my blog into something that I am not comfortable with just to get published (See July 24th post) I have decided to chronicle my battle to get my book of crochet stories published. Additionally I will talk about trying to create patterns to go along with my stories. It will be FUN and I'm always up for FUN; come along with me!

101 Crochet Books

Since I will likely NOT finish The Grouchy Ladybug, I have decided to send myself to a veritable boot camp.
It is not punishment but more of a test of my endurance and patience.
I have at least 101 crochet book (Yes, I am copying off of 101 Cookbooks from the Healthy Recipe Journal!)
I promise to attempt to try and complete one project in each of my many crochet books, patterns and leaflets. Maybe knowing that I have accountability, if not the puss eyes of Baby #4

then to the 80 whole people who have visited this site within three day (AND HAVE NOT LEFT ANY COMMENTS!)
Tonight I will dig through my books and see what pattern I can use to begin my crochet challenge. If you happen to have completed the same pattern, please leave an email, or send me a picture.

Socorro Ana-Paula!

Look at this face... Look at those eyes!

Wouldn’t you do just anything for him!
When Baby #4 looked up at me with those eyes just like those and said, “Ladybug?” I determined to recreate said ladybug just for him. He’s 33 months and really into his board books. He is particularly fond of Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug. Being a toddler with a notoriously short attention span, I had to abbreviate the tale for him.

“Hello!”
“Go away!”
“The ladybug met a yellow jacket.”
“Wanna’ fight?”
He got stuck on, “Wanna fight?”
He liked all of the animals that the ladybug met, but he loved the “wanna fight?” line.
“But Baby #4!" I reasoned
“You have to understand that the grouchy ladybug has a change in attitude.”
I continued “She met all of those bigger and tougher animal, couldn’t beat them and now she is the NICE ladybug…”
“Wanna fight?”
No matter, I was still going to make him that adorable NICE ladybug. I embarked upon a ladybug pattern in the April 2012 that Crochet World deems EASY…We will see because I have an inexplicable fear of amigurumi crochet. I don’t mind buying those books. I have too many of them to name. Ana-Paula Rimoli’s blog on blogspot is one of my favorite and I have all of her books(and I'm buying her new despite the $1,500 price tag!)BUT I had to stop buying ami books because I just wasn’t making them. I wasn’t making them because I was afraid of them.
I will start on an amigurumi, crafting the head, easy orb, done that before. When it comes time to branch out and make that body…I can’t do it. Is it he designers? Is it my mind? Is it the amigurumi? I don’t know.
Since the ladybug isn’t a traditional amigurumi (small crocheted thing, no torso to scare me) I decided to push past my fear and pick up my hook. I made the body easily, but tired because I like quick and easy projects. I made the head, stepped away from the project after all of that work and found that Baby #4 had pulled out 3 of my rows! I would not be deterred, although I did stop to take a break and to write this blog.
You see, this is where I usually get stuck. This is what turns a half-completed ladybug unto a UFO (UnFinished Object!) I’ll stash it in my workbasket, then reason that he didn’t really want that ladybug after all, I could pass off a store brought one for him, even though I promised him and myself NO MORE UFO’S, and he is looking at me, and then at the creature that is his ami… Look at those eyes...
Sóccoro Ana-Paula!